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The real agenda of ‘Israel Apartheid Week’

The real agenda of ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ is not simply justice for the Palestinians; it is the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

A Jewish settler near a construction site in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit. Expansion of settlements is a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Bernat Armangue / AP)

By Nora Gold

Fri., March 14, 2014

Canada is now in the middle of the 2014 cycle of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), an annual anti-Israel event originating in Toronto in 2005 that now exists in 130 cities worldwide, mainly on campuses. In Canada so far, we have had IAW in Toronto, Ottawa, London, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal, and there are plans also for Winnipeg and several other Canadian cities.

The name “Israel Apartheid Week” implies that Israel is an apartheid state, which is not true. Palestinian citizens of Israel, despite the challenges they face, work as doctors, journalists, social workers, athletes, professors and politicians, alongside their professional counterparts, Jewish citizens of Israel, in cooperative, collegial relationships. The reality in Israel is a very far cry from South African apartheid. Still, we have free speech in Canada, so people say all sorts of things, whether or not they’re true.

IAW is part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose leaders would have us Canadians believe that their sole agenda is to seek justice for the Palestinians. If this were accurate, I’d support BDS and IAW wholeheartedly, since as a progressive Jewish Canadian I believe that both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples need, and deserve, a homeland. The real agenda of BDS, however, is not simply justice for the Palestinians; it is the destruction of the state of Israel.

As Roger Cohen recently wrote in the New York Times: “The BDS movement[’s] stated aim is to end the occupation, secure ‘full equality’ for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and fight for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. The first objective is essential to Israel’s future. The second is laudable. The third, combined with the second, equals the end of Israel as a Jewish state. This is the hidden agenda of BDS... Mellifluous talk of democracy and rights and justice masks the BDS objective that is nothing other than the end of the Jewish state.”

Obviously it is legitimate to criticize Israel, just as one would criticize any other country, including our own. But seeking Israel’s destruction is something else. The 2011 Final Report of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism states: “Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic” but “denying [Israel’s] right to exist, or seeking its destruction, could be considered antisemitic acts... In the new antisemitism... the notion of Israel as a criminal state is used to further traditional antisemitic themes. These manifestations use the discourse of politics but, in fact, constitute masked hatred... The committee recommended...that universities host conferences to counter events such as ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’.”

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Irwin Cotler, formerly Canada’s minister of justice, wrote an article called “The New Anti-Jewishness,” where he defines “the new anti-semitism” as: “the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon, national particularity and peoplehood anywhere, whenever that national particularity and peoplehood happens to be Jewish... Classical or traditional antisemitism is the discrimination against, or denial of, the right of Jews to live as equal members of a free society; the new anti-semitism... involves the discrimination against, denial of, or assault upon, the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations... All that has happened is that [antisemitism] has moved from discrimination against Jews as individuals... to discrimination against Jews as a people” [i.e., against the Jewish collectivity, Israel]. “Israel and the Jewish people have been singled out for differential and discriminatory treatment in the international arena – and worst of all – singled out for destruction.”

All this may sound purely theoretical, and anyway why should Canadians who aren’t Jewish, Palestinian, or Muslim care about this new anti-semitism? The answer: Because it’s manifesting itself right here and now in our country, and this should greatly concern us all.

This week in Canada, tens of thousands of university students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds will confront, through IAW, reams of anti-Israel propaganda in “information” booths, pamphlets, posters, lectures and films. Like Judith, the protagonist in Fields of Exile, my forthcoming novel about anti-Israelism in the Canadian academe, many Jewish students this week will have distressing and painful experiences. Through IAW they will not encounter merely a pro-Palestinian narrative; they will encounter hate. Hate toward Israel and toward Jews

This hatred is no different than that experienced by victims of racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, ageism or ableism. This week at least some Jewish students will be damaged emotionally and psychologically by IAW. Yet IAW is permitted to flourish on Canadian campuses year after year.

Recently at a party I met a group of people, none of them Jewish, Palestinian or Muslim. When they heard about my novel, they said they respect the importance of Israel to Jewish Canadians, but are concerned about the Israeli occupation and frustrated by the continued settlement construction in the West Bank. When I said I share their concern and frustration, they were surprised and delighted to discover that “not all Canadian Jews are on the pro-Israel right.”

I told them about JSpaceCanada, a progressive Zionist organization that I formed with others to provide Canadians with an alternative to both the pro-Israel right and the anti-Israel left. I also described some dialogue groups and progressive Jewish organizations I’ve been involved in that support collaborative projects between Jews and Palestinians in Israel. These people found these projects interesting, but felt that, regarding Israel, the best thing they could do as fair-minded, well-meaning Canadians was to “keep their mouths shut.” They felt they didn’t know enough about the situation in Israel to comment, and they feared offending Jews, Palestinians or Muslims.

These were well-meaning people but they were wrong. They, and all of us, must open our mouths and speak out against lies and hatred. And we must actively support, through Canadian organizations, the critically important joint initiatives of Jews and Palestinians happening now in Israel. These are the building blocks of peace and co-existence. This is where hope for the future lies. And only in this way can individual Canadians help hasten a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Dr. Nora Gold is the author of Fields of Exile, the first novel about anti-Israelism in the academe that will be published this May by Dundurn. She is Writer-in-Residence and an Associate Scholar at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at OISE, University of Toronto, and the editor of Jewish Fiction.net. www.noragold.com

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